WARWICK — Jade Mawson spent the last hours of her short life hooked to machines that kept her heart beating, her blood pumping and her lungs working, while her mother presented a disconcerting impression to officials, witnesses told jurors yesterday.

Prosecutors allege Jade’s mother, Kimberly A. Mawson, inflicted the injuries on her 19-month-old child out of frustration after being alone with the girl for six days straight. Mawson, 37, faces one count of second-degree murder. Prosecutors will continue their case this morning at 10 a.m.

The child had been taken to Hasbro Children’s Hospital on Dec. 2, 2002, after she lost consciousness at her Warwick home. When she arrived, doctors found the child’s body bruised.

Jade had bruises to her front forehead, temple and the right side of the back of her head, an autopsy revealed, according to former state medical examiner Dr. Elizabeth Laposata. Small circular bruises on her chest and back showed that an adult grabbed Jade’s body and squeezed her so hard that one of her ribs broke and the soft tissue around her intestine tore. A blow to Jade’s head caused the nerves behind her eyes to bleed. A scrape and bruise to her nose and bruises to the inside of her lip suggested her nose had been pinched shut while a hand covered her mouth. An object the size of a pencil or a pinky finger broke Jade’s hymen — the membrane that covers the vagina opening.

Hasbro officials called the authorities, said Dr. Arlet Kurkchubasche, the attending trauma surgeon at the time, after they determined that it was unlikely that Jade would recover from her injuries. The police went to investigate Mawson’s Elmwood Avenue apartment, said Warwick Police Department Detective Robert Courtemanche. They snapped photos of the apartment to document the scene.

Mawson’s demeanor with officials was detached and her exchanges unusual, they testified.

“She said that in a place like Hasbro, there must be a need for a child’s organs,” Kurkchubasche said. “I was taken aback by the comment from someone who had just been told her daughter wouldn’t survive.”

Lisa Kolek, an investigator from the state Department of Children, Youth and Families said Mawson told her that she asked nurses to give her a copy of Jade’s autopsy report when it became available because she had studied forensics and would be able to interpret it. At the time, Kolek said, Jade had not yet been declared brain dead.

Mawson told Kolek that a wooden jewelry box had fallen on Jade’s head earlier in the day, probably causing the head injury. The bruises on her back came from holding the child’s waist as Jade flopped backwards on Mawson’s lap, she said. The vaginal injury came from self-exploration; Jade had watched Mawson insert a tampon, she told the police.

Meanwhile, doctors at Hasbro worked and waited. Jade was rushed to surgery where neurosurgeon John Duncan III said he performed a craniotomy to relieve some of the pressure from Jade’s swelling brain and to stop some of the bleeding. But as he worked, he saw the child’s brain was pale and motionless: signs of brain death. Duncan repaired as much of the damage as possible, and left a portion of Jade skull open to prevent additional swelling.

She was moved to the intensive care unit, where nurses watched over her, they testified.

“We gave her lots of fluids and monitored her body signs,” said Kimberly Riley, a registered nurse at Hasbro. “We just tried to keep her stabilized and comfortable.”

As the nurses worked, Riley said Mawson sat by her daughter’s bed teary eyed.

“She said she was hoping for a miracle.”

No miracle would come. Jade would remain in the hospital for two days. Officials performed the first of two tests to determine if Jade was brain dead. On her last night alive, nurses moved Jade to the side of the twin bed she lay in, arranging the tubes and monitors so that Mawson could be with her daughter. Mawson refused to sleep in the bed with Jade, Riley testified, but, instead, slept in another bed nestled close to the gurney.

tbuford@projo.com